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Tuesday April 16, 2024
Taj M Khattak
Taj M Khattak

  • November 28, 2019

    Democracy and agitation

    As ‘Guardian’ put it recently, “for democracy to function, you need a civically informed electorate and a fourth estate that functions...

  • April 17, 2019

    The emerging space scenario

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently announced the successful test-firing of a rocket, which shot down one of its live satellites orbiting...

  • April 06, 2019

    Indian Ocean: The next battle space

    In 1945 Sardar Kavalam Madhava Pannikar, was perhaps the first Indian thinker to state that whoever controlled Indian Ocean, would have India at his...

  • February 25, 2019

    Kashmir: on a dangerous slide

    India is a constitutional democracy and a secular state, as claimed by its citizens, but the existing ground realties reveal the opposite. Its...

  • January 31, 2019

    Heightened tolerance

    Allowing persons in public service to ease out into premature retirement, with full benefits in most cases, without first holding them accountable...

  • January 27, 2019

    Death by design

    In 1988, a US Navy ship shot down an Iran Air passenger jet in which all 290 passengers perished. The ship’s crew claimed that the aircraft...

  • December 08, 2018

    Ghazi’s eternal patrol in ‘zone victor’

    PNS/M Ghazi, formerly USS Diablo, was leased to Pakistan Navy in 1964. It was the first submarine to be inducted in South Asia region and it had an...

  • October 08, 2018

    Another surgical strike?

    It was Plato who said, ‘Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something’. General Bipin Rawat,...

  • April 08, 2018

    A rising tide

    While it is Christopher Columbus’ 4,000-mile voyage in 1492 to Bahamas that dominates history books, it is actually the 12,000 miles of voyages of...

  • January 31, 2018

    In the time of Trump

    In a speech delivered at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, US Defence Secretary James Mattis announced that countering...

  • April 11, 2017

    Changing the nuclear paradigm

    Speaking at a book launch, General Ehsanul Haq, the former chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee , warned against India shedding its pretence of...

  • February 16, 2017

    Shifting winds and trimming sails

    In days long gone, old sailors used to rotate their heads back and forth to determine wind direction until they could feel it blowing...

  • February 10, 2017

    Exercise ‘AMAN’ – 2017

    Exercise ‘AMAN’-17 has been planned by Pakistan Navy in the North Arabian Sea from 10 to 14 February, 2017. It is a multinational...

  • February 09, 2017

    Exercise ‘AMAN’ – 2017

    Exercise ‘AMAN’-17 has been planned by Pakistan Navy in the North Arabian Sea from 10 to 14 February, 2017. It is a multinational...

  • October 19, 2016

    Shrill belligerence at its worst

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s excessive obsession with Kashmir and a strong anti-Muslim streak in his personal chemistry have been...

  • September 03, 2016

    The Scorpene leaks

    As the Indian Navy prepares for Golden Jubilee celebrations next year to commemorate induction of its first submarine in 1967, it was struck by a...

  • June 11, 2016

    Changing nuclear dynamics in the Indian Ocean

    In the history of modern warfare, existential threat perceptions and asymmetry in conventional weaponry between adversaries have served as the...

  • February 16, 2016

    Defense of EEZ – Pakistan’s resource rich fifth province

    The idea of recognizing a nation state’s special rights over sea space outside territorial limits and calling it Exclusive Economic Zone is a...

  • February 15, 2016

    Defence of EEZ – Pakistan’s resource rich fifth province

    The idea of recognizing a nation state’s special rights over sea space outside territorial limits and calling it Exclusive Economic Zone is a...

  • November 19, 2015

    Exclusion of EEZ from high risk piracy

    Piracy at sea with all its lore and literature is not new and is believed to have existed in turbulent periods as early as 14th century BC when sea...

  • November 19, 2015

    Exclusion of EEZ from high risk piracy

    Piracy at sea with all its lore and literature is not new and is believed to have existed in turbulent periods as early as 14th century BC when sea...

  • October 04, 2015

    Japan’s shift in ‘peace’ posture

    Imperial Japan’s militaristic trajectory came to an end in Tokyo Bay in September 1945 with the signing of surrender instrument onboard Battleship...

  • September 28, 2015

    New tragedy, old lessons

    Nearly nine months after the attack on the Army Public School, Peshawar in December 2014, the TTP struck again at the Pakistan Air Force Camp...

  • September 20, 2015

    Pakistan and the Day of Democracy

    The world recently observed the International Day of Democracy which was the result of an initiative taken some years ago by Corazon C Aquino,...

  • September 16, 2015

    IONS-strengthening seafarers’ camaraderie

    In the maritime environments of 21st century, oceans are coming under increasingly sharp focus as new power centers emerge due to nation states...

  • September 16, 2015

    IONS-strengthening seafarers camaraderie

    In the maritime environments of 21st century, oceans are coming under increasingly sharp focus as new power centers emerge due to nation states...

  • September 06, 2015

    The law of unintended consequences

    Sometimes the animal world brings a whole new perspective to the phrase ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’. It is really an amazing...

  • September 04, 2015

    Reminiscing 1965 war

    President Ayub Khan's brief address to the nation on 6th September 1965 was a moment when history of Pakistan took a turn. It was a moment we...

  • August 16, 2015

    Devastated childhoods in Kasur

    Child abuse is a violation of the most basic rights of children enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 of the Convention...

  • July 22, 2015

    After the Iran nuclear deal

    After decades of animosity, Iran and the US, along with its international partners, concluded what has been described as a comprehensive, long-term...

  • July 17, 2015

    Cycles of acrimony and bonhomie

    Cycles of bonhomie after acrimony have become the hallmark of Indo-Pak relations. This was in full display yet again at Ufa a few days ago. The...

  • July 12, 2015

    Growing concerns on NAP

    In a rather unusual manner, the Ministry of Interior recently expressed its displeasure over a court’s observation, where during hearing of an...

  • July 05, 2015

    Presenting the ‘India dossier’ at the UN

    It must have taken quite an effort to convince Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is generally considered to be very cautious when it comes to India,...

  • July 01, 2015

    The burden of responsibility

    In 2003 when space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entering the earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts onboard, its Mission Launch...

  • June 24, 2015

    Cat on a hot tin roof

    In the past, former president Asif Ali Zardari had complained of tomcats lapping up all the milk but last week it was his own demeanor that...

  • June 17, 2015

    The elusive ‘same page’

    Government functionaries hardly miss any occasion when the ‘same-page’ mantra about harmony of thought between the civil and military leadership...

  • June 07, 2015

    Fewer APCs and more action

    In the aftermath of the Mustang tragedy, yet another all-parties conference was been convened by the chief minister of Balochistan which was chaired...

  • May 09, 2015

    The culture of taunting

    Hardly a week passes when one or the other politician in Pakistan has not resorted to taunting and shaming his/her adversary. In Pakistan’s rural...

  • January 01, 2015

    A capital storm

    A near-perfect storm is now swirling around capital punishment in Pakistan where a seven-year old moratorium has recently been lifted in the wake of...